Player pianos and such, generally do not get any exposure to the
public at large -- although of late these instruments appear on
the Internet -- but then, to the "stranger" it is only a photo and
a brief description.

The best way for people to see is of course the TV.   A good
documentary, with quality sound and an insight to the mechanical
workings, such as close-ups of the player "stack" the pouches,
valves, the roll mechanism and tracking systems.

The last two generations (plus) have also not been exposed to the
type of music of the player piano and I think this is one of the
difficulties;  even with a good documentary, it would be hard to
impress them

I lived in the UK for my first 30 years and took piano lessons.
I never did see a player piano there and hardly knew there was such
a thing.

Around 1971, I saw a "player" in an antique store in Vancouver, and
was more intrigued with the mechanics at first than what sound it
produced.

To mention the Mills Violano, some arrangements are really good in
that one or two strings are playing the melody, the others playing
a counter-melody, which only a machine can do as against one person
playing the violin.

Steve Bentley
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada